Carlton Hill

My aim had been to get up something yesterday, even if it was just the Pentlands. But to be honest i was tired after a long week of long days at work and when I woke on Saturday to see thick cloud and drizzle obscuring the hills I was relived in some ways. I spent the day playing on the computer, doing washing and catching up on housework.

At night we went for a meal and then saw Avatar, which was a disappointment on some levels. The 3D, CGI and special effects were amazing but the plot was derivative and the script very corny and cheesy. It was probably about 45 minutes too long as well. The 3D stuff was very good though and I can see future films using it well.

Today it was a pre-birthday (I am 42 tomorrow....) lunch in Wedgewoods - my favourite restaurant in Edinburgh, the lunch menu is a bargain at £10 for 2 courses - then a walk round Calton Hill. It was still misty and gloomy but the views over the city were not too bad.





I need a mountain soon

The Wirral Way

I popped South this weekend to see my folks.
I took them shopping on Saturday to the Morrison's in West Kirkby and then we went for a short walk along the Dee Coast and on a small stretch of the Wirral Way.

It was a beautiful clear day. On the drive to the shop at one point we could see over to the mountains of Snowdonia and they were beautiful and white. Walking along what became a muddy path you could see the North Wales coast clearly under startling blue skies. Round to the north west there was a windfarm out to sea, ugly and industrial. Still better there than on the hills.

Hilbre was out there too, looking vulnerable, a sandstone anomaly that will one day be worn away.

It was nice to walk with my parents though. Precious time.

This is their Wirral. Each place full of memories, names, histories. Places where they walked, picniced, cycled. I share some of it but the last 18 years for me have been in Scotland and while my roots are down there it has a smaller fund of memories for me. I've also been seduced by Scotland, the hills, the glens. The suburban sprawl of modern Wirral seems uniform and ordinary compared to either the city life in Edinburgh or the splendour of the Highlands.

That makes me sound a real snob doesn't it?

I like the Wirral though. I like the Wirral of my parents' memories in particular.

A walk round Arthur's Seat

It is great having a mountain in the middle of the city. After lunch I suggested a walk and so we headed round to St Margaret's Loch and parked. The idea to head up to the top of the hill and then drop down and back via Dunsappie Loch.



It was a glorious winter's day - it was cold, but most of the time we were sheltered from the south westerly wind in the lee of the hill.

We wandered past the still half frozen loch with geese sliding over ice and scores of tufted ducks with their mohican plumage bobbing in the water. Bearing left we headed up to the ancient St Anthony's chapel taking in the view to Leith and out over the Forth.

Higher up the views opened up again out to the Lammermuirs - still snowy - and round the familiar skyline of the capital. The city peeked out behind and below the Salisbury crags.

The top of the hill is polished rock always slippy and today it was crowded with the usual hoards of students and tourists with the usual broad array of footwear. We followed a crowd of noisy giggling Chinese down to the road their laughter increasing when one of them slipped over on the greasy grass.

Dunsappie Loch was frozen across save a small gap on the far side, home to two swans.

Curling back to the car, the Edinburgh skyline was stark against a bright twilight - the castle, Carlton Hill.

What a brilliant day. I've climbed this hill scores of times and still I find new views, fresh routes.

Bracklinn Falls

The MWIS forecast had been for rain and strong wind. The wind was bad early on in the morning, but things calmed down later. In Edinburgh it was starting to look calm and the wind was coming from the South so I suspected that the better weather was heading north. FAIL. I am as bad at forecasting as the Met Office.

We headed up to Callendar for a walk in the woods. The idea was to go to the top of the Crags and get a view across the wide open strath at this point on the doorstep of the Highlands. However it was pretty evident when we got up there that there was little point. Cloud was sitting on the top of the low hills around the town. Rain was comig down heavily too and it was dim and gloomy.

Instead we parked in an ice rink of a car park and headed up the road and along a path of solid ice to the Bracklinn Falls. They were full of boiling snow melt, fascinating to watch. It would be good to come back here in the summer for a wander round the rocks - today it was so icy and slippy that I thought I might easily fall into the water if I started to explore too much.



Not a huge walk and not a hill - I am looking forward to hills again - but a nice little walk and some spectacular views of the falls.

After that we headed off to the Lake of Menteith. Last Saturday the whole thing was frozen and they had an unofficial curling contest there - the official one was banned due to health and safety concerns.

We parked at the side and looked out at a misty Lake (not a loch!), still very much frozen but with some very wet looking patches.


I remember several years ago falling asleep on the island in the middle of the Lake. It was the day after a big walk - we had done the furthest north munro - Ben Hope - and the furthest south - Ben Lomond - in one day for charity. It was a good day. Lots of driving but a good day. Good memories

The snow is pretty much gone in the lowlands round Ediburgh now. It is still there on the Pentlands but mostly gone from Arthur's Seat.

BUPA Great Winter Run 2010

Time for the BUPA Great Winter Run again. It is about the only race I do each year now. 5K is a distance that is achievable without much training and it is a good way to kick off the year.

It was cold! Snow everywhere. It had snowed this morning too and while they'd made an effort to clear it, the normal route around Arthur's Seat was not deemed safe so they used a shortened 4km route. It was a good day though - bright sunshine and once we were running it was warm enough. There were 2,500 or so runners and as ever the race was really well organised.

The first half was on snow and it was a challenge to run with any speed. About half way round my knee started aching - muscular strain somewhere - which slowed me down. The last half was pretty much all downhill on the road. Nice.

I'd run this one for Alzheimer Scotland / Action on dementia and the charity gave us some goodies at the end as a thank you.

We stayed afterwards to watch the elite cross country races which were as inspiring as usual. It is a privilege to watch Olympic champions running in front of you and the speed of these guys is amazing.

We wandered round to the Loch to look at the birds too. Most of it was frozen over but there was a patch of overcrowded water full of ducks, geese and swans. The tufted ducks were especially cute.

Walk to work

Just a couple of photos of the walk to work yesterday. The Royal Mile and then going down Cranston Street. Cranston Street is normally a death trap but it has been well gritted this week. The Royal Mile has been worse. Great light - clear blue sky .
I'm off to do a run today - BUPA Great Winter Run - which will be interesting in the snow!

A drive through Glen Coe

Well it is back to work tomorrow. Before being stuck back in the office again I wanted to go and look at some bigger hills in the winter coats. It took me a while to get going - couldn't get the car out of its parking space due to snow and ice. Wheels were spinning and grinding to no effect until I had the idea of pouring some screen wash on the ice around the wheels to melt it a bit.

We stopped at the real food cafe for lunch and met Steve Fallon in the car park and it was nice to chat to him. He is the Phil Taylor of Munro Bagging, but a really good guy.



After that we headed up to Glen Coe stopping lots of times to take photos. We were lucky with the light for a while. The icicles and frozen water everywhere were amazing with the hills covered in series of frozen waterfalls.

We considered driving on to Fort William and then back via Spean Bridge, but it was going dark and there wouldn't have been a view. Plus it was time to go home....and think about work

The Panorama from Braid Hills

I did this video with the phone from the top of Braid Hills this afternoon. In some ways it shows things up better than the photos.




Snow is amazing. It is a cliché, but it transforms the landscape. Some of the blogs I've been reading are of people who are getting fed up with it now. I partly understand that - it is difficult to drive round at the moment- but I like it. It feels new and exciting. People are smiling as the walk past, pulling sledges with chuckling kids.

It must be glorious up north in the bigger hills....and if there was less snow I'd have been walking the past few days in the Borders or somewhere. Still this is nice. Not looking forward to the walk to work on Tuesday though!

Braid Hills

I was going to go further, maybe into the Pentlands, but there were few places to park up by Hillend. It was busy with loads of people skiing and snowboarding. I turned back into town and went up the Braid hills. Time was getting on and I was soon at the trig point taking in some fantastic views.




To the northwest I could make out Ben Lomond, Ben Ledi and others. The sun was dropping and dripping orange over the Pentlands. Edinburgh lay below, all white.

There were kids sledging on the golf course. Then a guy came past on cross country skis. Strange to see Edinburgh like this and like this for so long. Almost 3 weeks now.

More snow

Still it keeps snowing! It is forecast to continue cold for another few weeks! No fun to drive in though - I got a bus up the road earlier and it was sliding about in a very scary way.